In many instances, passenger vehicles, such as aircraft, buses, trains, ships, and automobiles, include passenger seats equipped with adjustable tray tables. The tray tables may have a relatively smooth top surface and provide a convenient location for users to hold food items while eating during transportation on the passenger vehicles. In some cases, the tray tables may also be used by passengers for other functional purposes, such as to support personal electronic devices (e.g., laptops, tablets, etc.), books, papers, pillows. etc.
The passenger vehicles may also be equipped with a wide assortment of entertainment options to encourage passengers to remain seated as much as possible during transport for safety, crew mobility, and to enable efficient cabin service. Some passenger seats may provide video and audio entertainment, including television, video games, internet access, and other on-board entertainment (“OBE”) or in-flight entertainment (“IFE”) components. Typically, these entertainment devices are mounted in the seat backs (i.e., above the tray tables) and/or in arm rests (i.e., next to the tray tables) of the passenger seats.
With the advent of personal electronic devices (“PEDs”), such as tablet computers, cell phones, smart phones, handheld video game systems, personal digital assistants, palmtop computers, DVD players, data or audio-video media players, monitors, e-reader devices, multi-media enabled devices, and other similar electronic devices, passengers have many options for multi-tasking and entertainment during transportation. These options may be available in addition to the OBE or IFE components that are mounted in the passenger seats. Oftentimes, however, it may prove difficult for passengers to effectively use their PEDs or to interact with the OBE or IFE components because of the limited space in most passenger seat configurations.
In some cases, it may be desirable to provide a way for passengers to more conveniently and efficiently interact with their own PEDs and the OBE or IFE components without compromising the functionality of the food trays.